Pete Finch – PGA Teaching Pro
When we’re looking to accelerate at certain points within the swing, especially at the bottom of the downswing, we need to understand the barriers that would impede you from achieving those results. Now, often the first problem is not having a correct backswing. A lot of people when they turn away have quite a short arm swing, their shoulders don’t rotate quite enough, and what that forces is a very fast acceleration at the start of the downswing. A lot of people don’t quite understand that the rotation during the backswing although you’re not hitting the ball, you’re building up potential energy and potential power. If you’re trying to hit a shot two hundred yards but you’re only turning back to half way, your brain is going to tell your body you need to move and you need to move fast to get this ball shifting down towards the target, and what that often mean is with a short backswing all of the sudden from this point here, is a very, very fast acceleration from the top of the swing.
So the acceleration from here to here is exceptionally fast and is very, very hard to control. So the first thing you want to be doing to accelerate at the bottom of the swing is make sure the top of the backswing you have rotated fully. There’s a couple of very simple checkpoints to use, lifting the chin nice and high, keeping the spine angle tilted over the ball and rotating that shoulder until it’s right underneath that chin. Now what that will cause is the shoulders to be rotated ninety degrees in relation to the target and then hopefully arms lifting up to a nice solid backswing position as well. From there you are more than capable of moving down into impact. The second cause and one of the reasons why a lot of people struggle to accelerate gradually throughout the downswing, is the transition period from the backswing into the downswing. That rushed motion that you see a lot of players make from the top of the backswing, so from here and slowly moving down into impact is a sudden burst of power form the top of the swing. That messes up how you want to be accelerating through the ball. If all of the sudden you’re putting in all your energy and all your speed into this part of the swing, it’s going to be actively slowing down as you approach the ball. So just concentrate on getting up to the top of the swing and then moving smoothly down into that transition can greatly help how you accelerate throughout the downswing. A great drill to use on this is to swing up to the top with a nice full turn and just have a little bit of a pause and then gradually move down into the shot. Some PGA tour players do use this at the moment and there a few others throughout history who do this, but is a good drill to use. Go to the top, pause, and then gradually accelerate down through the shot until you reach the bottom of your swing where the club should be traveling at its fastest. 2016-08-25When we’re looking to accelerate at certain points within the swing, especially at the bottom of the downswing, we need to understand the barriers that would impede you from achieving those results. Now, often the first problem is not having a correct backswing. A lot of people when they turn away have quite a short arm swing, their shoulders don’t rotate quite enough, and what that forces is a very fast acceleration at the start of the downswing. A lot of people don’t quite understand that the rotation during the backswing although you’re not hitting the ball, you’re building up potential energy and potential power. If you’re trying to hit a shot two hundred yards but you’re only turning back to half way, your brain is going to tell your body you need to move and you need to move fast to get this ball shifting down towards the target, and what that often mean is with a short backswing all of the sudden from this point here, is a very, very fast acceleration from the top of the swing.
So the acceleration from here to here is exceptionally fast and is very, very hard to control. So the first thing you want to be doing to accelerate at the bottom of the swing is make sure the top of the backswing you have rotated fully. There’s a couple of very simple checkpoints to use, lifting the chin nice and high, keeping the spine angle tilted over the ball and rotating that shoulder until it’s right underneath that chin. Now what that will cause is the shoulders to be rotated ninety degrees in relation to the target and then hopefully arms lifting up to a nice solid backswing position as well. From there you are more than capable of moving down into impact. The second cause and one of the reasons why a lot of people struggle to accelerate gradually throughout the downswing, is the transition period from the backswing into the downswing. That rushed motion that you see a lot of players make from the top of the backswing, so from here and slowly moving down into impact is a sudden burst of power form the top of the swing.
That messes up how you want to be accelerating through the ball. If all of the sudden you’re putting in all your energy and all your speed into this part of the swing, it’s going to be actively slowing down as you approach the ball. So just concentrate on getting up to the top of the swing and then moving smoothly down into that transition can greatly help how you accelerate throughout the downswing. A great drill to use on this is to swing up to the top with a nice full turn and just have a little bit of a pause and then gradually move down into the shot. Some PGA tour players do use this at the moment and there a few others throughout history who do this, but is a good drill to use. Go to the top, pause, and then gradually accelerate down through the shot until you reach the bottom of your swing where the club should be traveling at its fastest.
